Club Update March 2012

March was a great month for flying with superb weather almost the whole time.  The Harper Hawker Hunter made its debut and promptly destroyed its motor on the first flight, but Mick soon replaced it with a HET Typhoon motor and all is now well.  Mick has managed to ‘modify’ it slightly on a couple of landings but it goes back together ok and flies really well.  It’s pretty fast and Wonky Wiltshire decided a race with his Alpha Jet was required.  After several entertaining screaming low passes together there was a clear winner and Wonky is now looking for a faster jet!
Ian Hewlett spent his spare time over the winter building a Hawker Typhoon from Brian Taylor plans and he test flew it a couple of weeks ago.  Apart from some niggles with the undercarriage doors all went well. It flew very nicely but was very twitchy on elevator so Ian went away to sort the doors and reduce the elevator movement.  He returned a couple of days later but it seems he had reduced the elevator movement a little too much as the model took off but failed to climb out. I would describe the arrival as a heavy landing rather than a crash but it broke the right hand wing a few inches outboard of the centreline and the only sensible answer is to build a complete new wing.  The model is 73” span, powered by an OS120 pumper 4 stroke, and Ian has made a lovely job of it, no doubt it will be back in the air before too long.
1066 asked me for a quiet word on Sunday, totally in confidence he said… so immediately almost everyone at the field gathered round to listen in! Obviously I can’t repeat what was said but on a totally unrelated matter we might be seeing an I/C (remember those?) Chipmunk with an electric conversion before too long… but don’t tell anyone, it’s all very hush hush… allegedly.
The switch to 2.4GHz became a priority for Peter Turley after his little foam Yak glitched all round the field and eventually disappeared in the valley so he treated himself to a shiny new Spektrum DX8. Now this transmitter will do just about anything that any pilot would ever want, in fact it’s billed as ‘The World’s Most Advanced 8 Channel Radio’ and amongst its many features is a throttled linked timer. So why is it necessary to have another 2 countdown timers mounted on a separate piece of wood to fly a £20 4 channel piece of foam? Maybe I’m missing something…I think I heard one cruel onlooker mutter something about ‘all the gear, no idea’…   Anyway, 2.4GHz did the trick and the Yak now flies well with no glitching and Peter is regaining his confidence. Just got to read the manual now Peter!
For a couple of days in March we were joined by guest flier Shaun Sivertsen, Nick’s son. Shaun lives in Bury St Edmonds but asked if it was ok to fly with PAM when he is down this way. He brought along a variety of electric models including a Fantrainer, a Sebart Angel, and a Dago Red.  Shaun is a ‘proper’ modeller and a good flier, it was a pleasure to meet him. It’s always good to meet modellers from other clubs and see what they do differently etc.  Nick says Shaun was very impressed by our flying site and he looks forward to returning in the future.
Finally, details of a couple of March ‘finals’. Wonky Wiltshire tried a Phase 3 F16 EDF, sadly rather briefly as it met its end on only its third flight. According to Phil that was about £35 a flight! Meanwhile Smiffy bought a Century Max Thrust Vortex, another EDF that didn’t even manage 3 flights. He tried to blame an innocent party for a dodgy launch when it failed to get away for the first attempt, and then refused to try it again until most witnesses had gone home. However I understand the second attempt was equally hairy and ended with the demise of the Vacuous Vortex. For more info on both of these please read Patch News – 23^rd March.
Definition of Landing: A controlled mid-air collision with a planet.
Andy P.